Wire bound crate



May 2, 1933w w w. HARGROVES 1,906,907

WIRE BOUND CRATE Filed March 22, 1950 INVENTOR ,7): W iizyrores,

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ATTORN EY Patented May 2, 1933 WILLIS W. HARGROVES, F PORTSMOUTH,VIRGINIA VIIRE BOUND CRATE Application filed March 22, 1830.

This invention relates to crates or baskets of the wire bound type andmore particularly concerned with a crate of rectangular cross sectionpermitting the use of light stave stock while providing maximum rigidityand durability and arranged for economical manufacture.

Crates or baskets of this type, as heretobefore constructed, have lackedrigidity and durability and have been subject to distortion and tobulging and brea age through internal load pressure.

In accordance with the present invention as one feature thereof 1 haveprovided an adequately braced top and bottom formation of particularlyadvantageous construction and side walls of light stave stock made rigidand braced by inward tensioning applied through an external bracing andtensioning reinforcement.

The invention includes as a further feature, a top constructionembodying continuous inner and outer batten strips having their facesscored at the corners of the top of the crate and bent at right anglesto the rectangular form of the crate with the tops of the staves formingthe side walls of the crate enclosed between the inner and outer battenstrips and secured thereto by suitable inserted fastenings and with anexternal binder of wire or metal strapping applied to and encircling theouter batten strip and fastened thereto and preferably also to thestaves and inner batten strip, thereby providing a strong, braced topedge to the crate resisting deformation by handling and by internal andexternal pressures. This top edge is further braced and made rigid byinward tensioning applied through the tensioning of the stave side Wallsas heretofore stated.

A further feature of the invention resides in a bottom construction forthe crate comprising separate cleats engaging and extend ing around theinner faces of the staves at the bottom and nailed or otherwise fastenedthereto, with their top edges supporting a plurality of relatively thinstaves forming the bottom, and with an external bracing wire or strapencircling the outer faces of the Serial No. 438,153.

staves at their bottom and nailed or otherwise fastened thereto.

These and other features of the invention will be more clearly apparentfrom the following detailed description which is to be 5 read inconjunction with the accompanying drawnig forming part thereof and inwhich Figure 1 is a top plan view of a crate constructed in accordancewith the present invention.

Figure 2 is a front elevation of the crate as shown in Figure l.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary transverse vertical section on an enlargedscale through the crate shown in Figures 1 and 2, and

Figure 1 is a perspective detail on an enlarged scale of one corner ofthe crate at the top edge showing the manner of joining the ends of thecleats and binder wire.

The crate of the present invention is rectangular in cross section andpreferably tapered in form to permit nesting and conseryation of spacein storing and shipping and is composed of a shell of staves 1 which inthe tapered form of the crate shown in Figure 2 may be advantageousfy oftapered form arranged with the staves at each side of the rectangleappropriately disposed as by the re versal of an intermediate stave asshown in Figure 2 to provide the outer edges of the sides formed therebywith the appropriate downward taper. The upper and lower ends of therectangular shell of staves are braced upon their internal faces bycleats extending continuously around their internal faces and byexternal binders opposed thereto and enthe external faces of the stavesto the top and bottom. These external binders are fastened byappropriate means to the staves and to the internal cleats.

As shown in Figures 1 and 3 the bottom of the crate is formed byseparate butting cleats 2 engaging and extending continuously around theinside faces of the staves 1 at their bottom and by an external binderwhich may be in the form of a wire 3, or alternately by strapping, drawntightly around and fastened as by staples 4 to the staves 1 at theirbottom edge and to the cleats 2 engaging the inner faces of these bottomedges. Obviously the cleats 2 are rigidly joined to each other at theirabutting ends in a suitable manner to form rigid corners as bydove-tailing or other commonly used methods. The external binder 3, if a*ire is used, has its opposite ends drawn tightly together, overlappedand spliced as shown in Figure 2 similarly to the overlapping andsplicing of the external binder wire applied to the top edge of thecrate illustrated in Figure l and hereinafter described. A bottom,proper, for the crate is provided by, preferably, a series of thinboards or slats 5 having their opposite ends resting upon the top facesof.opposed cleats 2 with the sides of the end slats of the bottomresting upon the top faces of the-opposite pairs of cleats 2 as shown inFigure 1. Obviously instead of a series of slats 5 a single piece ofmaterial may be employed.

The top edges of the staves 1 forming the shell are braced againstdeformation by a corn tinuous cleat 6 of thin wood scored the pointsrepresenting the corners of the inside of the top indicated at 7 (Fig.4c), and bent on the line of scoring to form a continuous reetangularstrip conforming to and engaging the inside faces of the staves 1 attheir top edges. Preferably the stave strip is of a length in excess ofthe internal perimeter of the crate top so that its ends will overlap asshown at 8 in Figure 1 to provide means for fastening the stave striptogether in its stave engaging position. Opposed to the continuous stavestrip 6 and overlying the outer faces of the staves 1 at their top edgesis a similar continuous stave strip 9 having its inside face scored asat 10 (Fig. l) at points representing the external corners of the topedges of the crate and bent on the lines of scoring to enmaintained bythe bracin afforded by the enclosing cleats which as will be seen arefastened to the staves in tight conformation therewith, the outer stavestrip 9 is drawn to tight enclosing engagement with the staves 1 bymeans of a continuous external binder which as shown is composed of wire11 but which may be in the form of other strapping. The ends of thebinder 11 are drawn together and overlapped preferably at a corner ofthe crate as shown in Figure i and are spliced as shown with the wirebinder 11L tightly engaging the outer cleat strip 9 and holding the sametightly against the outer faces of the staves 1. Appropriately the outerbinder 11 may be fixed to the outer cleat strip and to the staves andinner cleat strip by staple fasteners 12 passing through the inner andouter cleat strips and through the intervening staves and clinched attheir inner ends as shown in Figure 8 to join these parts together. Byusing continuous cleat strips scored for bending at right angles to formcorners, asubstantial manufacturing economy is afforded since the cratemay be made and completely assembled in one operation.

Crates as previously constructed have been subject, even with their topand bottom ends well braced, to deformation, outward bulging andbreakage through pressure of their lead contents when the shell or sidewalls of the crate are formed of flexible staves due to the relativelyweak structural strength of these side walls. I have substantiallyincreased the strength of the stave side walls by tensioning theminwardly and holding them under inward tensing pressure by means of anexternal binder wire 13 (Fig. encircling the external sides of thestaves 1 intermediate their top and bottom edges, the ends of the binderwire 13 being drawn together and overlapped preferably at a corner ofthe shell as suggested in Figure a, and spliced and fastened to thestaves of the shell with the binder wire 13 applying and maintaininginward tensioning of the stares with the tensioning pressure at amaximum at the corners. With the looped ends of the binder wire 13, oneof which is shown at 1% (Fig. stapled to the stares l and with thestaples or other fasteners holding the wire 13 to the staves 1 atintervals along its intervening length the inward tension thus appliedwill be maintained and the side walls and corners of the crate will bemade substantially more rigid and offer a substantially greater amountof resistance to deformation through outward pressure than has hithertobeen possible with prior constructions. lVith this inward tensioning ofthe side walls which as suggested in Figures 1, and 3, will result inproducing a slight convexity of the side walls inwardly, the corners ofthe crate structure will be substantially strengthened and the top ofthe crate through inward tension applied through the top ends of thestaves will also be slightly bowed inwardly thereby increasing itsstrength and resistance to breakage at this point. This inward bowing ofthe rim structure puts the corners under pressure and thus addsreinforcement to places which take much of the knocks and bumps in thehandling of the crate. Appropriate handles may be secured to thereinforced top edge of the crate, such for example, as the wire bailhandles 15 shown in Figures 1 and 2. The crate while preferably madetapering in form because of the advantages of nesting and saving instorage space may obviously be of uniform cross section at the top andbottom securing the same benefit of inwardly tensioned side walls aswhen made of tapering form. The particular structural details of thecrate while representing a preferred embodiment of the invention areintended as illustrative rather than restrictive and are subject tomodifications and changes adapting the invention to different conditionsof manufacture and use in consonance with they spirit of the inventionand the scope of the appended claims. In addition to reinforcing thecorners of the crate the foregoing bowing of the rim structure has theadvantage of bringing out an absolutely compact nesting of a number offilled crates in the following manner: Assume a number of the crates tobe filled with fruit or the like and stood on a floor. The tendency ofthe inward bowing of the rim structure is to resist outward bulging, buteventually there may be a yielding of the rim structure due, perhaps, toa slight softening of the wood or perhaps to the perpetual jogging ofthe contents during transit.

Looking down on the foregoing numbers of crates one may see the outwardbulging or yielding of one side of the rim structure of a given crate asbeing stopped by a corresponding yielding or outward bulging of the sideof the rim structure of an adjoining crate. The same efiect may be notedbetween crates in all horizontal directions, so that where originallythere were elongated spaces between rim structures such spaces have nowbecome filled by the slight outward yielding or bulging of the rimstructures, making an absolutely compact formation between the rimstructures of all of the crates. The effect can be visualized byconsidering all of the crates as having expanded, so to speak, into aunitary and compact mass. This condition prevents any shifting of theload whatsoever, so that there is no danger of damage to the contents bybruising, etc., in transit.

I claim 1. A crate comprising a shell of substantially rectangular crosssection composed of staves and including a bottom, cleats and binderssecured to the upper and lower ends of the staves, and a continuousexternal binder attached to the shell intermediate of its upper andlower ends exercising a contracting pressure to bow the sides of theshell inwardly but being permissibly yieldable outwardly.

2. A crate comprising a polygonal shell of staves, internal cleatsextending continuously around and engaging the inner faces of the stavesat their lower ends, a crate bottom afiixed to said cleats, a continuousexternal binder applied to the outer faces of said staves at their lowerends in opposition to said cleats, a continuous inner cleat strip scoredand bent at the corners of the top of said shell and engaging andextending continuously around its inner face at its upper end, acooperating similarly scored outer cleat strip engaging and attached tothe outer face of said shell and to the inner cleat strip, a binderencircling and secured to said outer cleat strip, and a continuousintermediate binder encircling said shell between its upper and lowerends and fixed thereto under contracted tension producing andmaintaining inward bowing tension of the sides of the shell and saidcleat strips.

3. A crate comprising a shell of staves of substantially rectangularcross section, a binder wire applied to the shell substantially mediallyof its ends, said binder wire being under tension and therefore bowingthe staves inwardly, a rigid bottom structure mounted in one end of theshell, and a rim structure at the remaining free and top end of theshell, the inward bowing of the staves be ngimparted to said rimstructure to bow sald rim structure inwardly and thereby put the cornersunder pressure to establish a reinforced corner structure.

4. A crate to compose a unit of massed crates, said crate comprising ashell and staves of substantially rectangular cross section, a bottomfor the shell and a rim structure the corners of which are abuttable bythe rim structures of adjoining crates, and a binder wire contractingthe shell into inwardly bowed form and initially bowing the rimstructure inwardly, said bowing tending to resist outward bulging due tothe contents of the crate, but being permissibly yieldable until the rimstructures of all adjacent crates in one plane meet to form a solid massof crates.

WILLIS W. HARGROVES.

